Ivan Mazepa and Matryona Kochubey Some personalities leave such a deep mark on history that the echoes of their activities are heard not even decades, but centuries. Undoubtedly, Ivan Mazepa, the hetman of the Zaporozhian army, was such an outstanding personality.

PIROGOV Grigory Stepanovich 12 (24) 1.1.1885 - 20.2.1931 Russian singer (bass). In 1910-1921 at the Bolshoi Theatre. Roles: Melnik ("Mermaid"), Tomsky ("Queen of Spades"), Gremin ("Eugene Onegin") and others.

ROSLAVLEV Alexander Stepanovich pseudo. Bayan; 1(13).3.1883 - 11/10/1920 Poet, prose writer. Publications in the journals "Awakening", "Satyricon", etc. Poetry collections "Visions" (M., 1902), "Red Songs" (Yalta, 1906), "In the Tower" (St. Petersburg, 1907), "Carousels" ( SPb., 1910), "Tsevnitsa" (St. Petersburg, 1912). "Alexander

KUDRIN Ivan Stepanovich Ivan Stepanovich Kudrin was born in 1921 in the village of Kolupaevka, Yurgamyshsky District, Kurgan Region, into a peasant family. Russian by nationality. Member of the CPSU since 1945. After graduating from three classes of a rural school, he worked on the May First collective farm. WITH

Ivan Mazepa is one of the most famous hetmans of the Cossack Ukraine. He left a mark in history as a politician who fought for the independence of his state. In 2009, the Order of Mazepa was established in Ukraine, it is awarded for merits in national diplomatic activity, charity and state building.

Pedigree of Ivan Mazepa

Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich was born on March 20, 1640, some sources claim that a few years later on the farm Kamenets, later renamed Mazepintsy, near the White Church. The child was the offspring of the Ukrainian gentry. Ivan's mother Mary Magdalene was a respected, educated woman with her own. Throughout her life, she was her son's adviser. For the last 13 years of her life, she was abbess of the Kiev Caves Monastery.

Ivan's father, Stepan-Adam Mazepa, served in the entourage of Hetman Vyhovsky.

Education

From childhood, Ivan Mazepa received an excellent education. In his father's estate, he studied horse riding and saber skills, studied various sciences. Then he became a student of the Kiev-Mohyla Collegium. A capable student is fond of the works of Roman and Greek philosophers, gravitates towards European literature, speaks several foreign languages.

At the end of his studies, his father sends Ivan to the page service to the Polish king. At court, Ivan Mazepa shows himself to be an educated, promising gentry. He is sent to receive further education at universities. During the years of study, he managed to visit Italy, France, Germany and Holland.

The future Ukrainian hetman fascinated people at first sight. Not only the power of his thought, but also flattering speeches and external qualities were his trump cards at the time of climbing the career ladder.

Situation in Ukraine

Ivan Mazepa, whose biography is still full of inaccuracies today, has come a long way to the top of his political career. At the end of the 17th century, Cossack Ukraine was going through hard times. The lands were ruled by three hetmans, who were guided by different foreign political forces.

Petro Doroshenko was a protege of the Turkish Sultan, who had his own political interests in this territory.

Hetman Samoylovich took a pro-Russian position.

Ivan Mazepa, according to some sources, was excommunicated from the court for a quarrel with colleagues, according to others - for a relationship with a married lady. But be that as it may, in 1664 Jan Casimir sent an army to Mazepa, left the corps and went to his father's native village.

In 1665, after the death of his father, Ivan Mazepa took over his position and became a sub-chalice of Chernigov.

Dreaming of a political career, he marries a wealthy widow Anna Fridrikevich, who soon dies and leaves him a huge fortune and useful connections. Anna's father, Semyon Polovets, being a general convoy, provides patronage to his son-in-law and arranges him for the service of Hetman Doroshenko. Under the “Turkish” hetman, the confident and cunning Mazepa became a captain of the court army and later a clerk.

In 1674 Doroshenko sends Mazepa to Turkey. As a present, he gives the Sultan slaves - left-bank Cossacks. In the Crimea, Ivan Sirko smashes him, but does not kill him, but hands him over to Samoylovich. The gift of persuading people worked, some sources claim that Mazepa's fiery speech saved his life.

Ivan Mazepa, whose biography is full of sharp twists of fate, began to look after the children of the Left-Bank Hetman, and a little later he was appointed Yesaul for his faithful service. Samoilovich often sent Mazepa to Russia, and here they won the favor of the royal favorite, Prince Golitsyn.

hetmanship

In July 1687, Mazepa, with the participation of his patrons, was elected hetman of the Left-Bank Ukraine, and his predecessor Samoilovich, along with his relatives and retinue, was sent to Siberia.

Some sources claim that Mazepa gave a bribe to Golitsyn for help, others refute this fact.

Nevertheless, in 1689, when the young Peter ascended the Russian throne, a close friendship developed between them. The experienced hetman gave the young majesty advice on foreign policy relations with Poland.

Meanwhile, Ukraine was unsettled. In 1690, Petrik's uprising began. Mazepa, relying on his own army and the help of Peter, brutally suppressed him. Many contemporaries believed that Ivan Mazepa, whose history of rule was very bloody, from his very youth was not distinguished by loyalty and devotion. Our contemporaries call these qualities political flair.

For quite some time now, Ukrainian nationalists have been raising Ivan Mazepa to the shield. On the national currency of independent Ukraine, his portrait adorns the ten-hryvnia banknote. According to the official story, which is hammered into the heads of schoolchildren and students, Mazepa is ordered to be considered a noble hero who spoke out against the oppression of the Cossacks by wild Moscow. However, in spite of all efforts, the hetman, who became famous mainly for his betrayals, cannot be washed white. Against Peter the Great, they rebelled more than once - both archers, and Cossacks, and schismatics ... Why did Mazepa become so famous, having been awarded the nickname Judas and anathema from the church? Probably because Mazepa was the only one who ran for support to the foreign invaders-Swedes. It is impossible to imagine Princess Sophia asking for help from the Polish king, or archers, who, having rebelled against Peter, unite with the Janissaries to march on Moscow.

The creators of the myth about the Ukrainian patriot Mazepa somehow omit the youth of their hero in their articles. But it is in young years that a person’s character is formed. Mazepa was born into a noble family in the Kiev region around 1640. His native language was Polish. When he grew up, his father arranged for his offspring to be a “resting gentry”, that is, a page, at the court of the Polish king. And all the time, while Little Russia was bleeding, while the Cossacks and peasants fought against the Polish oppressors, Mazepa faithfully serves the Poles. Probably, he would have remained a servant of the crown until the end of his life, but to his own misfortune, he tried to slander his colleague Jan Pasek before the king. Tom managed to justify himself, and the intriguer Mazepa had to leave Poland, dear to his heart. However, he quickly found himself a new master - the hetman of the Right-Bank Little Russia Doroshenko, a Turkish vassal and enemy of Poland. So Mazepa turned from a Polish gentry into an enemy of the Commonwealth. This was his first betrayal.

Hetman Doroshenko

Apparently, our hero fell in love with Hetman Doroshenko, since he appointed him captain of the court banner, that is, his personal guard, consisting of Serdyuki mercenaries. It is worth saying a few words about Mazepa's new cartridge.

Doroshenko... Perhaps there was no more bloody ruler in our history. He was brought to power in 1665 by the troops of the Crimean Khan, who ravaged the Dnieper region. Doroshenko paid off with Khan, recognizing the power of the Turkish Sultan and giving tens of thousands of Orthodox peasants into slavery. To make the price of Turkish-Tatar assistance more understandable, we note that in 1666 alone, the Tatars drove forty thousand people to the Crimea. As far as Doroshenko and his masters were hated, this fact speaks: when he, with the Tatar army and his mercenaries, tried to capture Podolia, the Poles and the local Russian population united against him. Former irreconcilable enemies fought together against Doroshenko. The power of the hetman in the occupied territory rested solely on Tatar sabers, he did not disdain the minting of counterfeit coins. As a result of his reign, the Right Bank was practically deserted, and this time went down in history under the eloquent name "ruin".

And all this time, the faithful Mazepa helped Doroshenko turn the once flourishing region into a desert. It is not known whether he personally participated in punitive and predatory campaigns, but it was impossible to be in the company of Doroshenko and not get his hands dirty with the blood of his compatriots. In 1674, Mazepa was sent as an ambassador to the Crimea. As a gift to the khan, he was carrying several dozen prisoners captured on the Left Bank, which belonged to the Muscovite tsar. But the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks intercepted the embassy, ​​released the prisoners, and Mazepa himself was sent under escort to Ivan Samoylovich, the hetman of the left-bank Russian part of Little Russia. There, Mazepa betrayed Doroshenko and went to the service of his enemy Samoilovich. What made the hetman save Mazepa from a well-deserved execution and take him under his wing, we do not know. But for Samoilovich, this decision was fatal. Taking advantage of the failure of the campaign of Russian troops (with the participation of the Cossacks, of course) Prince Golitsyn to the Crimea, Mazepa accused his savior of sabotage. As a result, Samoilovich was sent to Siberia, his son was executed, and Mazepa was offered to the Cossacks as a new hetman. Since the proposal was supported by royal authority and the royal archers, ready to suppress any disagreement, Mazepa was elected.

Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine Samoylovich

The period of Mazepin's hetmanship deserves a separate discussion. We only note that he became one of the richest people in Europe. His close associates did not lag behind him, robbing their own people, enslaving the peasants and poor Cossacks, introducing panshchina. Rebellious awaited reprisal. Since Moscow did not interfere in the management of Little Russia, limiting itself to placing garrisons in large cities, Mazepa, in fact, was an absolutely sovereign ruler. The level of confidence in him on the part of Tsar Peter is evidenced by the following fact: all taxes collected in Little Russia remained at the disposal of the hetman, and Mazepa became one of the first holders of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. It would seem that live and be happy, but Ivan Mazepa always tried to play a double game. Posing as a faithful servant of the tsar, he simultaneously began a secret correspondence with the king of Sweden, Charles XII, who was fighting against Russia.

Of course, they were driven by sheer calculation. The Swedish army has been considered the best in Europe since the Thirty Years' War. Moreover, Charles XII confirmed its reputation by defeating the Russian army at Narva in 1700, defeating Denmark and occupying Poland. During the first eight years of the Northern War, the Swedes demonstrated a number of brilliant successes, and few believed in the victory of Russia, which was left without allies. So Mazepa was actively looking for an opportunity to defect to the side of the winner. And he outwitted himself ... In an effort to fill his own worth, he greatly exaggerated his strength and significance. His calculation was simple: Karl, fighting in the north, smashes Russia, captures Moscow, and Mazepa, having accepted the protectorate of Sweden, remains the ruler of Little Russia, untouched by the war. To the misfortune of Hetman-Judas, Charles XII believed in his tales and went on a campaign to Moscow through Poland and Ukraine, where he expected to find supplies and replenish his army at the expense of Mazepa's people. At the same time, the tsarist troops moved towards the Swedes. Moreover, both Peter the Great and Charles XII considered Mazepa their faithful subjects. Accordingly, both monarchs ordered the hetman to come to the rescue. Mazepa made his choice and with two thousand Cossack bodyguards galloped to the king's camp. The rest is known to all. Little Russia remained loyal to the Russian Empire, a guerrilla war broke out against the Swedes, and Poltava, until the approach of Peter's army, was fiercely defended from the Swedes by local residents. The very Ukrainians who, according to the current Svidomites, should have joyfully opened the gates to "liberators from the Muscovite yoke."

We note that for the peasants Mazepa was a bloodsucker and exploiter, and the free Cossacks, reduced by the hetman to the position of serfs, could not forgive him either their offenses or the blood of their brothers, generously watered by him during the years of his reign. In general, he became the enemy of everyone - both the supporters of Peter the Great and his opponents.

But at the same time there was a man whom the common people considered their intercessor. Like Mazepa, he took up arms against the Moscow Tsar, but did not seek help from the enemies of the Russian state. Yes, and he did not have such a need, because tens of thousands of people rose under his banner at the call of the heart. His name was Kondraty Bulavin, but today his name is almost forgotten. By the way, completely undeserved. The Bulavin uprising in 1707-1709 covered a vast territory from the Dnieper to the Volga. More than thirty thousand people took up arms, including one and a half thousand Cossacks. Even after the death of Bulavin, his followers continued to fight.

Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa - one of the most prominent Ukrainian hetmans, who was in power the longest (more than 20 years) - was born on March 20, 1640 (according to some sources in 1639 or 1644) on the farm Kamenets (later Mazepintsy) not far from the White Church that in the Kiev region, in the family of the Ukrainian gentry. Mother - Mary Magdalene - was an educated, courageous and great patriot of Ukraine. Until the end of her days (1707), she was the first adviser to her son-hetman, which testifies to her deep intellect. For the last 13 years of her life, she was abbess of the Kiev-Pechersk Convent. Ivan, from an early age, mastered riding and sabering, studied European sciences, and over time, at the insistence of his mother, went to study at the Kiev-Mohyla Collegium, which he would turn into an academy during the years of his hetmanship. Mazepa's favorite authors were Cicero, Titus Livius, Tacitus. At the end of the collegium, Ivan Mazepa's father Stepan-Adam (a rather businesslike figure in the retinue of Hetman Vygovsky) sends his son to the court of the Polish king as a page, from where he, as a talented gentry, is sent to Western Europe to complete his education. Holland, France, Germany, Italy expanded the outlook of the young man, enriched spiritually and politically. He thoroughly studied the basics of fortification, cannon making and other sciences. Slender, incredibly attractive in appearance, Ivan was a very enlightened person for his time: in addition to Ukrainian, he spoke Russian, Polish, Latin and French, was well versed in philosophy and history, music and poetry, wrote poetry. From a young age to late old age, Mazepa had the gift of captivating people: kings and tsars, warriors and Cossacks, even the clergy obeyed his attractiveness, not to mention women.

The main goals of Hetman Mazepa.

The main goals of Mazepa's policy as the hetman of Ukraine were: the unification of Ukrainian lands - the Hetmanate, Right-Bank Ukraine, Zaporozhye, Sloboda Ukraine and Khan Ukraine as part of a single Ukrainian state headed by the hetman, as well as the creation of a hetman's power as the basis of a European-type state while maintaining the system of Cossack self-government . During his time as hetman, he managed to partially solve this problem by uniting the Hetmanate, Right-Bank Ukraine and Zaporozhye. Hetman Mazepa twice raised the issue of joining Sloboda Ukraine to the Russian Tsar Peter I and was twice refused.

Political situation.

Ukraine in the second half of the 17th century experienced terrible times: Turks, Tatars, Poles and Muscovites attacked its lands. The chronicler of those times, Velichko, describes this region as follows: “Many cities and castles were deserted, destroyed ... Fields were devastated, forests, lakes and swamps were covered with moss ... Heaps of dried human skulls turn white on all roads ... ". The rich and fertile lands of Ukraine have become a desert. In addition, one Ukrainian elite is drawn to Moscow, another to Turkey, and a third to Poland.

The peace between Ukraine and Poland, as always, did not last long. The disgraced Mazepa is sent away with the Polish army, which has once again gone to war in Ukraine. But once at the White Church, Mazepa left the royal entourage and went to his homeland - to Mazepintsy.
At that time, three powerful rivals encroached on Ukraine - Poland, Russia and Turkey. Each of these states had its own hetman in Ukraine. The most famous of them, Petro Doroshenko, wanted to unite the torn Ukraine into a single state with the help of the Sultan. Mazepa came to him. Educated, with diplomatic abilities, he quickly becomes the commandant of the hetman's guard, and soon - an honorary general clerk, that is, the head of the diplomatic department of the Cossack state.
The Cossack "Minister of Foreign Affairs" of the Right-Bank Ukraine, Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa, is negotiating with the Left-Bank Hetman Samoylovich, with the Turkish Sultan and the Crimean Khan, with the Moscow Tsar and the Polish King, even with the French - Louis XIV. Mazepa's contemporaries were Corneille, La Fontaine, Boileau, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld - all of them could not help but influence the worldview of the future hetman. La Rochefoucauld in one of his maxims said: "A far-sighted person must determine the place for each of his desires, and then implement them one by one" . Guided by this principle, young Ivan Mazepa marries a wealthy widow, who soon dies, leaving him a large inheritance. Mazepa becomes one of the richest landowners in Ukraine. There were over 100,000 peasants on his estates.

Ivan Mazepa - Hetman of the Left-Bank Ukraine.

In 1687, the Cossack elite chose Mazepa as the hetman of Ukraine, when he was already in his fifth decade. The election of the hetman of the Left-Bank Ukraine took place on July 25 (August 4, according to a new style) at the Cossack Rada in the regimental village of Kolomak (now a village in the Valkivsky district of the Kharkov region). At the same time, the historically famous Kolomak Articles were signed, limiting the rights of the hetman, but strengthening the power of Russian tsarism in Ukraine. And although under these articles it was forbidden to elect a hetman and appoint Cossack elders without the permission of the tsar, nevertheless, the elders received a number of privileges - the inviolability of the ownership of estates, the provision of the rank of nobility and broad powers to combat the anti-feudal movement, suppress uprisings "siromi", etc.
During the election of Hetman Mazepa, according to tradition, an agreement was read out, signed at one time by Bogdan Khmelnitsky and ratified by Moscow, where the main provisions of relations between Ukraine and the Muscovite region were outlined. True, this agreement was somewhat distorted and differed from the original, stored only in Moscow, since the Kiev copy burned down in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra under rather mysterious circumstances. As is known, the Russian-Ukrainian treaty of 1654, first of all, proclaimed a military alliance of the autonomy of Ukraine and Russia against Poland. And two years later (1656) after the signing of this agreement, the Russians and the Poles sign a separate truce in Vilna without the participation of Ukraine, which meant the actual termination of the Russian-Ukrainian treaty. They say that Bogdan Khmelnitsky, shortly before his death, spoke about the need to formally break the contract. But the death of the hetman in 1657 prevented this. And his successor, his son Yuri (not far off and weak-willed), slipped a fake, which eventually became the only official text of the contract, which was signed by all the hetmans.

Achievements in the development of science and culture.

At the beginning of the 18th century, at the end of the Mazepa period, there was one school per 1,000 inhabitants in Ukraine (a century later, in 1875, there was already one school per almost 7,000 inhabitants). At the time of Mazepa (1708), the Kiev-Mohyla Academy had 2000 students, but already in 1709 there were 161 of them, and almost a century later this number increased, but only up to 800-1000 people. Today, the resurrected academy has over 2,000 students. During the time of Mazepa, there were many Ukrainians among the students of the Sorbonne and Prague universities. Almost all Cossack officers in Ukraine had a higher education.
Perhaps the most important component of the hetman's multifaceted activities was church construction. After the collapse of Kievan Rus, the construction of monumental religious buildings in Ukraine, in particular on the Dnieper and Left Bank, was practically not carried out. Under the conditions of Horde domination, Tatar invasions in the era of the Principality of Lithuania, persecution of the Orthodox Church under Poland, popular uprisings and the times of the Ruin, the population was only able to maintain the surviving ancient Russian churches in a more or less satisfactory condition and build new (insignificant) ones. The turning point occurred under Hetman Ivan Samoylovich. At his expense, the construction of the majestic Trinity Cathedral in Chernigov, the cathedral church of the Mharsky Monastery near Lubny, began. At this time, an architectural style began to take shape, called "Ukrainian Baroque". It successfully combined the architectural features of ancient Russian monumental stone churches or wooden places of worship with elements of the Baroque style, varieties of which spread throughout Europe.
The residence of the hetman - the city of Baturyn - becomes the cultural and educational center of Ukraine and Europe. Mazepa corresponded with many European scientists and politicians, took under his wing the Kiev-Mohyla collegium, turning it into an academy, raising it to the level of a European university, building a new three-story building for the academy. He turns the Chernihiv Collegium into a higher lyceum school, in many cities and villages he builds schools, printing houses, and churches at his own expense. Mazepa restores the monastery of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, surrounding it with a monumental wall with wonderfully decorated gates in the form of a church.
As the head of state, Mazepa was not known for meekness, he brutally cracked down on enemies and those who encroached on his power, the power of the aristocratic elite. He wanted Ukraine to be independent, but he was not very worried about the fate of the poor and the peasantry. Therefore, the “orphan”, which rebelled against the Moscow yoke, against the Polish gentry and Ukrainian masters, was mercilessly suppressed. And this was approved by Peter I. An uprising led by Petrik, the leader of the poor, was suppressed. Fastov's Colonel Semyon Paliy was exiled to Siberia, who fought against Polish oppression in Ukraine.

Mazepa's betrayal.

In the third decade of his hetmanship, Mazepa became convinced that neither faithful service to the tsar, nor the fulfillment of contractual obligations ensured a free existence for Ukraine. One way or another, the growing empire is tightening its networks more and more, interfering in the Ukrainian statehood both politically and economically, considering Ukraine only as a source for enriching the empire, pumping its natural wealth, labor force, minds and talents.
In 1708, the Russian army, strengthened quantitatively and qualitatively, is located on Ukrainian lands, robbing peasants, there are cases of violence, rape, causing discontent among the entire Ukrainian people, the Cossack elders. Mazepa's appeals to the tsar on this matter remain unanswered or run into irresponsible promises.
Menshikov, this illiterate tsar's henchman, a talented ignoramus, while on the territory of Ukraine, in Kiev, looks down on the educated Cossack elite, including the hetman, constantly emphasizing the superiority of strength, not mind. He gives orders to the Cossack colonels, bypassing the hetman.
Concerning the moral side of the corresponding behavior of Mazepa, it should be noted that the violation of agreements by those in power in those days was the same norm as the conclusion of these agreements. More than once Ukrainians were betrayed by Poles and Russians, Turks and Tatars, and Ukrainians were often forced to commit such treason. Among many authors of the West, Mazepa's favorite was Machiavelli, an Italian politician and writer of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, who believed that any means, even immoral, were acceptable in order to strengthen the state.
Realizing that the victory of Peter I would only accelerate the process of destruction of Ukrainian statehood, but would not stop it in any way, Mazepa made a historic decision to go over to the side of the Swedes. The latter promise Ukraine complete independence.

The defeat of the Swedes near Poltava.

Secret negotiations that Mazepa conducted with the Poles and Swedes back in 1705-1706 ended with an agreement between Ukraine and Sweden. Here is one of the articles of this agreement: “Everything that was conquered in the old Moscow possessions will belong in accordance with military law to the one who takes it as a winner. And everything that will be recognized as the former property of the Ukrainian people will be transferred or preserved for the Ukrainian principality.
Therefore, the Swedish army, having entered the territory of Ukraine, behaved in a friendly manner, respected the inhabitants, paid for food and fodder. And in November 1708, Mazepa, with a 4,000-strong army, united with the Swedish king. They were joined by a part of the Cossacks (8 thousand Cossacks), led by Kosh ataman Kost Gordienko.
Peter and Menshikov launched a great terror in Ukraine against Mazepa's supporters. The tsar forced the Ukrainian clergy to proclaim anathema to Mazepa.
The severe cold winter of 1708-1709 began. Terrible times began for Ukraine. And in the summer of 1709, fortune turned its back on Mazepa.
The youth of 27-year-old Charles XII and the experience of 70-year-old Mazepa were defeated by the maturity and perseverance of 37-year-old Tsar Peter I. I'm not talking about the talent of these figures - it was inherent in all three. The defeat of Karl and Mazepa can be explained by several reasons - this is the wounding of the king, and the weakening of the Swedish army (30 thousand Swedes and Cossacks against almost 60 thousand Russian soldiers), underestimation of the enemy’s high level of training, non-support of Mazepa by the majority of Cossack colonels, for whom the change by the hetman was unexpected pro-Russian orientation and, finally, the misunderstanding by the Ukrainian people of the strategy of the aristocratic hetman's elite. The clergy also played an important role. After all, it was believed that Muscovites, Orthodox, were brothers in spirit, and Poles and Swedes, Catholics and Protestants, were especially sworn enemies of Orthodoxy.
After the defeat, Karl and Mazepa fled south to the Dnieper, crossed at Perevolochna, where they were almost captured by Russian troops, and arrived in Bendery.
The Ottoman Empire refused to extradite Mazepa to the Russian authorities. Although the royal envoy in Constantinople, Peter Tolstoy, was ready to spend 300,000 efimki for these purposes, which he offered the Grand Turkish Vizier for assistance in extraditing the former hetman.
Mazepa died on September 22, 1709 in Bendery. By order of his nephew, Voinarovsky, his body was transported to Galati and buried there.
Subsequent events confirmed the correctness of the conclusions made by Mazepa on the eve of the Poltava battle.
After Mazepa, science and culture in Ukraine decline, most Ukrainians become illiterate. Russia seeks to create a strong state with fire and sword as the successor of Kievan Rus - therefore Kyiv must submit to it. Moscow viewed Ukraine only as a bridge to Western Europe.
Recognizing the superiority of Ukrainian culture, the Muscovite kingdom, turning into the Russian Empire, deliberately subjugates Kyiv politically and economically with various prohibitions and infringements. Peter I did it most actively, and Catherine II completed it. Therefore, we can say that history has justified the last act of Hetman Mazepa.
References used when writing the work:1. Stanislavsky A.L. Civil war in Russia in the 17th century. M., 1990. 2. Bagdasarov R. Zaporizhzhya chivalry of the XV-XVIII centuries // Social sciences and modernity. 1996., 3. Yakovenko I. Civilization and barbarism in the history of Russia. Article 3. Cossacks // Social sciences and modernity. 1996. No. 3., 4. "People of Old Ukraine", Kiev, 2000

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BRIEF HISTORICAL OUTLINE

Crossword in a Moscow newspaper. The first question: "One of the most famous hetmans of Ukraine." Without hesitation I write: "Mazeppa" - and I guess. Still would! Indeed, on the most popular banknote (10 hryvnias) his strict face is depicted. He looks shrewdly and seems to ask: “What have you done for the good of Ukraine!?” Having overcome my embarrassment, in turn I ask the question: “What did you do, clairvoyant sir, that you were honored to decorate the state treasury ticket with yourself?” Hetman, of course, is silent, so I myself have to look for an answer to this question.
**
After the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in September 1657, leapfrog with hetmans began on both banks of the Dnieper. For thirteen years, ten people held the coveted mace: I. Vygovsky, Yu. Khmelnitsky, (son of Bogdan), Ya. M. Khanenko and, finally, I. Samoilovich. A common property of each of the listed hetmans was their constant dependence either on Poland, or on Russia, or on Turkey. Not the last place in this scenario was occupied by the Crimean Khanate.
And now Vyhovsky is replaced by Yuri Khmelnitsky. He helps the Poles to defeat the Russian army in Volyn and agrees to the return of Ukraine under the rule of Poland. The Cossacks of the Left Bank refuse to recognize this conspiracy and elect their left bank hetman. Desperate to restore order in the country, Yuri refuses the mace and in January 1663 goes to the monastery. Since that time, Ukraine has split into two parts: the Left Bank (under the Moscow protectorate) and the Right Bank (under the Polish).
Even under B. Khmelnitsky, the left side of the Dnieper was very poorly populated due to the fact that it was constantly subjected to devastating Tatar raids. As fortresses began to be built under Moscow supervision, and archery detachments were placed in them, life became calmer and more organized. This contributed to an increase in the population, including due to the massive influx of refugees fleeing the dominance of the pans. The process went so intensively that the native Russian lands soon began to be populated. These are the current Kharkiv, Lugansk and Donetsk regions. By 1700, the Left Bank became the center of the political and cultural life of the Little Russian people, with a population of 1200 thousand people.
But the right-bank hetman Petro Doroshenko is itching to rule all of Little Russia, and he moved his army to the Left Bank and overthrew the hetman there. Before he had time to gain a foothold on both banks, it was necessary to oppose the Poles. Feeling his military weakness, Doroshenko conspires with the Ottomans and agrees to turn the Right Bank into a Turkish province. With this step, he finally undermined his authority among the people.
On March 17, 1674, a council of colonels from the Left Bank gathered in Pereyaslavl, where Ivan Samoylovich was elected Hetman of Little Russia. After the rejoicing, everyone went to have dinner with Prince Romodanovsky, the Moscow military commander. And here, in the midst of the feast, a messenger from Doroshenko arrived. It was his general clerk Ivan Mazepa. He conveyed to the prince the request of the hetman to stand with all his army under the high royal hand. The prince was delighted at this request and assured the ambassador that the hetman could count on the royal mercy and go to him without any fear. Time passes, and Doroshenko, neither with the army nor without him, does not go. Romodanovsky sends a messenger to him with a request to hurry up. Doroshenko replies: “Now I can’t do anything of this, because I am a subject of the Turkish Sultan. Sultan's sabers, khan's and royal sabers hang on my neck.
In an effort to get support from the Crimea in the fight against the Poles, Doroshenko sends Ivan Mazepa to the Khan. Due to the fact that the hetman did not have valuables worthy of the occasion, he sends as a gift 15 Cossacks who were in his captivity. According to the laws of that time, this was an unacceptable sin: an Orthodox hetman gives his fellow believers into slavery to the infidels. And the value of the gift was very doubtful, given that over the previous two centuries, the Crimean Tatars managed to destroy or capture and sell into slavery up to 2.5 million Little Russians.
On the way to the Crimea, the messenger is intercepted by the Cossacks. The Tatars accompanying him are killed, the prisoners are released. Mazepa, for violating Christian canons, was to be executed by a cruel death, but, surprisingly, they were left alive. There is a legend that Mazepa so shocked the Cossacks with his eloquence that they did not raise a hand against him, and they handed him over to Hetman Samoylovich.
Samoilovich sends the captive to Moscow through Romodanovsky. They interrogate him there. He answers questions willingly and at length, revealing the secrets of the hetman's court to the smallest detail. In Moscow, they find out how many guns and people Doroshenko has, find out that the Poles are asking the hetman to persuade the sultan to make peace with Poland and start a war with Muscovy. In short, Moscow is pleased with Mazepa, he was granted the sovereign's salary, and with that he was released, but already to Samoilovich. There he enters into the confidence of his new boss and becomes a teacher of his children.
**
Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa-Koledinsky - of gentry origin, was born in 1639 (there are other dates, but in our opinion it is the most acceptable) in the village of Mazepensy, not far from the White Church. From a young age he was in the service of the king of Poland, Jan Casimir. The young man liked the monarch and, among the three chosen, was sent to study abroad. From where he returned in 1659 and entered the host of royal courtiers. He, fulfilling the orders of the king, travels to the hetmans, therefore he was personally acquainted with Vyhovsky, and with Y. Khmelnitsky, and with Teterya. Unsuccessful amorous deeds, with which Mazepa sinned until his old age, forced our hero to leave Poland in 1663. Finding himself again in Ukraine, he marries an old but rich widow. Her father brings his son-in-law with the hetman P. Doroshenko. Here, thanks to his education and talent, he quickly makes a career and becomes a general clerk, which may correspond to the current rank of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
***
Having settled with Samoylovich, Mazepa often visits Moscow on government assignments. Natural insinuatingness, the ability to please at first sight and court experience allows him to gain confidence not only from the ministers of the royal court, but also from the young princes John and Peter. They marvel at his learning and knowledge of court etiquette. Samoylovich, following in line with the Moscow successes of the envoy, elevates him and makes him the general captain of the Zaporozhye Host.
***
In the summer of 1687, a campaign of Russian and Cossack troops against the Crimea was undertaken. At the head of the campaign was the boyar Vasily Golitsyn, the Cossacks were commanded by Hetman Samoylovich. The 100,000-strong army could not overcome the deserted and waterless Wild Field (the south of present-day Ukraine) and turned back. The losses and expenses incurred had to be somehow justified and written off. Golitsyn, being the favorite of the ruling tsarina Sophia, was untouchable, so the most convenient "scapegoat" was "appointed" Hetman of Little Russia Ivan Samoylovich. Relevant work was carried out, and at the disposal of the Moscow government was a detailed denunciation of the unseemly activities of this clairvoyant pan. The denunciation was signed by the most senior figures of the Zaporizhzhya Army. Among them are close associates of the disgraced hetman: Ivan Mazepa - general captain and Vasily Kochubey - general clerk.
Samoylovich and his family were arrested and exiled to Siberia without further litigation, and Ivan Mazepa was elected the Little Russian hetman on July 25, 1687, at the suggestion of Vasily Golitsyn, as the historian S. Solovyov says: "he had long thought about hetman dignity." Further, he characterizes Mazepa as follows: “A servant of the Polish king, from a young age, brought to Ukraine by the Cossacks by misfortune, Doroshenko’s servant, therefore, a sworn Turkish sultan, a servant of Hetman Samoilovich, and therefore a royal sworn, Mazepa changed his oath so often that that change became him for custom..."
Almost immediately after Mazepa was elected hetman, some "rogues", in his words, began to spread the rumor that he was hanging out with the Poles and buying up estates in Poland. Ivan Stepanovich addresses Vasily Golitsyn with an excuse and receives full support from him.
The Russian government, forced to comply with the terms of the agreement with the Poles, in 1689 again organized a campaign against the Crimea. Prince V. Golitsyn was again placed at the head of the army, and Mazepa now commands the Cossacks. On the outskirts of the Crimea, the Russian army is attacked by the Tatars. They are dispersed by artillery fire. Subsequently, this skirmish was passed off as a decisive victory over the Crimean Khan.
The Russian army approached Perekop so exhausted that Golitsyn refused to storm the fortress, and withdraws the army to Ukraine. Sophia in every possible way extols the "successes" of her henchman, and she manages to maintain his reputation for some time.
In August of the same year, Mazepa travels to Moscow and in secular conversations, talks about the last campaign in the Crimea, while extolling Golitsyn's military leadership abilities. The hetman is praised for his faithful service to the queen and presented with gifts. But then the power suddenly changes. Sophia is in the monastery, and Golitsyn is arrested. On the Russian throne - Peter I, paired with his weak-minded brother.
Rumors reach Mazepa that he is called "Golitsyn's client." “Client” is not in the modern sense of the word (buyer, customer), but in the sense of a person dependent on the patron. He spends anxious days in anticipation of reprisals, not knowing that the advisers are trying to persuade the tsar to maintain the status quo in Ukraine and not to bring matters to new elections. Hetman is given an audience. From the transferred fears, his voice trembles, but this loyal words sound even more convincing. The tsar liked Mazepa's speech and the gifts intended before that for Golitsyn, too.
Mazepa, wanting to dispel the last suspicions of himself, writes a petition in which he blackly denounces Golitsyn and declares that he was forced to give him large gifts of things and money, and therefore asks to reward himself from the estate of Sophia's former favorite. The petition was accepted and worked as a sign of the devotion of the Little Russian hetman to the new government. His request is granted. Thus, another benefactor was betrayed, before whom more than once he had to fawn and humiliate himself. The chain of betrayal has lengthened by one more link.
Moscow immediately confirms the rights and freedoms of the Little Russian people. Mazepa asks for an increase in the number of tsarist military people in Little Russian cities, and also seeks permission to conduct an accurate census of the Cossacks, so that no one can continue to seem either a Cossack or a peasant, and vice versa. These and other requests were fully granted. From this we can conclude that the fall of Sophia did not violate the good relations between Moscow and Little Russia.
But attempts to spoil them continued. Poland especially tried. The king, having received false information about Mazepa's pro-Polish vacillations, instructs the Lvov bishop Joseph Shumlyansky to enter into relations with the hetman and find out his real intentions. The bishop, who dreamed of a Kyiv metropolis, sends the gentry Domoratsky to Mazepa with an overly frank letter in which he urged the hetman to decide on a break with Moscow. Already orally, Domoratsky informed the addressee that two regiments were stationed not far from the Little Russian borders and, at the first sign of the hetman, they would come to the rescue. And if the hetman treats the Polish state favorably, then Shumlyansky himself, dressed in a worldly dress, will secretly come to Baturyn (Mazepa's residence) in order to talk from mouth to mouth about the liberties and rights of the military and hetman in the royal name.
But the bishop overdid it. Having received his message, Mazepa orders Domoratsky to be arrested and sends him along with Shumlyansky's letter to Moscow.
Literally after Peter I, another letter was sent, in which an anonymous author complains that the henchmen of Sophia and Golitsyn have long been condemned, and Mazepa is the source of all troubles, still in Little Russia, which he is going to give to the Poles. Such a rare coincidence in time of two actions of different meaning allowed Moscow to conclude that someone was trying to discredit the hetman who was devoted to her.
The clerk Mikhailov was sent to Baturyn in order to assure Mazepa of the Tsar's grace and ask: "How does Hetman Ivan Stepanovich argue whether this letter was written in the Polish side, and what suspicion does he have of Poland?" Mazepa bowed five times, thanking for the royal mercy and trust, looked at the image of the Mother of God and, shedding tears, exclaimed: “You, the Most Holy Theotokos, my hope, look at my poor and sinful soul, both day and night, I constantly have care so that to serve the anointed of God until the death of his belly, to pour out his blood for their sovereign health, and my enemies do not sleep, they are looking for how they could destroy me. After such a prayerful statement, a discussion of the problem began and the “ill-wishers” indicated by Mazepa, although they had no direct relation to the slander, were arrested and brought to justice.
The clumsy provocations of the Poles convinced Moscow of the loyalty of the hetman and highly appreciated it. Therefore, it is not surprising that Mazepa, for services to the throne, the second in Russia, on February 8, 1700 was awarded the highest state award - the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.
By 1701, the relations between the hetman and the Zaporizhzhya Army became aggravated. The Cossacks said that he went to Moscow to “receive cavalry”, but did not inform about their needs, and they were completely ruined in the tsarist service, threatening to go serve the Polish or Swedish king. Mazepa, in response to this, asks to increase the number of archers guarding him from 300 to 1000.
The Cossacks called their participation in the Northern War "Royal Service". Of course, it was difficult for them to fight against a highly organized Swedish army. But it's not even about big losses - they were not allowed to fight the way they used to: drive in corrals, ruin, burn and seize booty. In order to restrain the predatory instincts of the Cossacks within the framework of the "correct" conduct of the war, the Russian command was forced to put outposts in their path.
Mazepa, seeking to raise his authority among the Zaporizhian Cossacks, decided to go on the Livonian campaign himself. Having received permission from the king to speak, he went to Lithuania. I made a stop in Mogilev and here I received an order to return to Baturin due to the fact that the Tatars had become more active. Mazepa returned, and the army left.
Later, Mazepa wrote to Golovin about the Cossacks who had returned from that campaign: “(…) when they return, they bark with their dog lips: the hetman wanted to send us to Siberia or Arkhangelsk into eternal captivity. Although I am not afraid of their canine voices, it is hard to endure such rogues. He asks for sanctions to punish the Cossacks. Golovin replied: "Punishing the Cossacks would not harm Ukraine."
Moscow well understood the difficulties of Mazepa, and highly appreciated his zeal and ability to maneuver between the Cossack freemen and the need to strictly fulfill the royal orders. In the winter of 1702-1703, the hetman was in Moscow and returned from there treated kindly and even more enriched. He received the ownership of the Krupetsk volost with all its villages and villages, he was given
sables, velvets and other valuables. By that time, Mazepa had become one of the largest feudal lords of his time: he owned about 100 thousand peasants in Ukraine and another 20 thousand serfs in Russia.
In January 1705, the hetman wrote to the same Golovin: "The Cossacks do not give me obedience or honor, what I have to do with those dogs." He still has to dodge and, if Charles XII had not come to the Russian borders, Mazepa would have died as a faithful servant to the Russian Tsar.
***
At the beginning of the 18th century, the Swedish army was considered the best in Western Europe - it had first-class weapons, was distinguished by discipline and high fighting qualities. Sweden at that time was an economically developed country, owned the entire Baltic and dominated Northern Germany. Therefore, the defeat of the Russian army near Narva (November 1700) and later near Riga (June 1701) were not accidental - the Swedes were worthy of these victories.
Swedish King Charles XII in July 1701 launched a campaign against Poland, considering it a greater threat to Sweden than Russia. On May 14, 1702, Charles XII enters Warsaw and then methodically wins province after province from King Augustus II of Poland.
On July 4, 1706, Peter I arrives in Kyiv to see for himself that it is possible to defend him from the Swedish troops. The tsar sends Menshikov to Volyn, and Mazepa orders, if necessary, to assist the prince and fulfill all his instructions. Here the gentry ambition of the former royal chamberlain jumped up. Should he obey the one who sold pies as a child? He indignantly said in his circle: “This is what a reward for me in old age for many years of faithful service! Ordered to be under the command of Menshikov! Lord, deliver me from their panning!” True, the low origin of Menshikov, at one time, did not prevent Mazepa from asking for the hand of the prince's daughter for his nephew.
On September 24, 1706, August II abdicated the Polish throne, broke off the alliance with Russia and recognized the protege of the Swedes, Stanislav I Leshchinsky, as the king of Poland. Peter I was forced to offer peace to the Swedes, but Charles XII rejects him.
***
And somehow Mazepa, while in Dubno, receives an invitation from Prince Vishnevetsky to come to him in Belaya Krinitsa to become the godfather of his daughter. During his visit, the hetman becomes close, as was planned in Poland, with Vyshnevetsky's mother, Princess Anna Dolskaya. This lady, who by that time had managed to bury two husbands, was not yet old and possessed not only an attractive appearance, but also an outstanding mind. Mazepa has long conversations with her. Here, according to contemporaries, the seed of temptation was thrown. A significant role in this was played not only by the fact that “the charmer managed to madden him” (Orlik’s opinion), but also by the unsuccessful attempt of Peter I to make peace with the Swedes, which was regarded by Mazepa as evidence of the weakness of Russia and the strength of Sweden.
Returning to Dubno, the hetman orders Philip Orlyk, the general clerk, to send a letter of thanks to the princess and hand over the key to the numerical alphabet. A few days later, he receives an encoded response: "I have already sent to the right place with a report of your true love." It is not difficult to guess which of the monarchs Mazepa preferred in conversations with Anna.
Soon a new letter arrives from Dolskaya, in which she calls on the hetman to work and assures him of the favor of King Stanislav I and the guarantees of Charles XII. After reviewing the letter, Mazepa, under Orlik, began, with seeming indignation, to scold the princess: “The damned woman has gone mad! Before, she asked me that the royal majesty (Peter I - A.S.) accept Stanislav as his patronage, but now she writes something completely different! Grandma is freaking out! He wants to deceive me, a skilful, well-worn bird! Stanislav himself is not strong in his kingdom, the Commonwealth is bifurcated: what can be the foundation of the crazy seductions of that woman? I grew old, serving the royal majesty. Neither the King of Poland Jan, nor the Khan of the Crimea, nor the Don Cossacks seduced, and now, at the end of my life, a single woman wants to deceive me! Mazepa was supposed to send the seditious message to Moscow, but, despite this, he orders Orlik to burn the letter in front of him. As you can see, he continues to weigh the possibilities of the opposing sides on tricky political scales.
For a long time there were no letters from the "damned woman", but then it came. She wrote from Lvov. You see, she had a chance to dine with the tsarist Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev. She sat at the table between him and General Renne. She, as if by chance, mentioned the name of Mazepa and spoke of him with praise. Renne said to this: “Have mercy, Lord, on this kind and reasonable gentleman. He, the poor man, does not know that Prince Menshikov is digging a hole under him and wants, leaving him, to be hetman himself in the Ukraine.” Sheremetev confirmed the words of the general. Dolskaya allegedly asked: “Why doesn’t any of your good friends warn the hetman?” “It’s impossible,” the field marshal answered, “we ourselves endure a lot, but we are forced to remain silent.”
After listening to the letter read by Orlik, the “worn bird” pecked and fell into a snare. Mazepa began to recall the humiliation and deceit that he had to experience from Menshikov. "Free me, Lord, from their domination!" - he finished his complaints and ordered the general clerk to thank Dolskaya for the warning. This is all that he, surrounded by the Moscow garrisons who protected him from the insidious foreman and dashing Cossacks, could afford today.
In 1707, in Zhovkva (Right-bank Ukraine), at a military council, with the participation of the tsar, a plan was developed for a strategic retreat into the depths of Russia in case the Swedes rush to Moscow. According to it, the army was supposed to avoid general battles and constantly attack the carts and enemy commissaries, destroying stocks of fodder and food. Mazepa suggested at that meeting: if Karl and Stanislav were separated and the Swedes went to Muscovy, and the Poles to Ukraine, then he, with his army, weakened by frequent campaigns and war, would not be able to resist the enemy, so he asked the tsar to give him at least ten thousand regular troops. Peter answered: “Not only ten thousand, and I can’t give ten people. Defend yourself as best you can." Mazepa was offended and did not go to dine with the tsar, but sent an agent left for him by Princess Dolskaya to contact Stanislav, expressing his affection for him and asking him not to act hostile to him.
On September 16, 1707, together with a new letter from Dolskaya, he received a message from King Stanislav. After reading them, Mazepa said: "Oh, damned woman, she will destroy me." After that, he was silent for a long time and, finally, said to Orlik: “I struggle with my mind: should I send this letter to the royal majesty or not?” - and after a pause: “Now go, Philip, and pray to God, tomorrow we will consult. God sees what I do not for myself, but for all of you and your wives and children.”
The next morning, Mazepa and Orlik kiss the cross, swear allegiance to each other, and then discuss the current situation. At the same time, the general clerk argues as follows: “(...) Who can investigate the fate of God: what is the limit for a real war and who will have a victory? If for the Swedes, your magnificence and we will all be happy, but if for the royal majesty, then we will all be lost and the people will be destroyed. Mazepa assures that he will not deviate from the oath until he sees that the royal majesty will not be able to protect not only Ukraine, but his entire state from Swedish potency.
On September 18, Mazepa replied to Stanislav that he could not fulfill his decree to raise the people against the Muscovites, due to the fact that the Ukrainian people, like different wheels, disagree this is with natural antipathy towards the Poles. The only thing he promised was not to harm the interests of Stanislav and the Swedish troops in any way.
This letter was dictated to Orlik and appeared, to some extent,
a cover for the real intentions of Mazepa. In October 1707, King Stanislav had a secret messenger from the hetman, who declared: “Everyone knows that Moscow military people are big cowards and although they boast that they will firmly expect attacks from the Swedes, they always scatter. Mazepa offers his assistance to the Swedish and Polish kings and promises in advance to build bridges for the Swedish army if the kings will patronize his intentions. The Moscow army, of which there will be six or seven thousand in Ukraine, will all be exterminated.”
The Swedish king was not particularly happy about this statement. “I noticed from experience,” he said, “that the Cossacks are able to provide services when you have to pursue a fleeing enemy, but in general you cannot rely on them during the war.”
In November 1707, Moscow received a letter from Mazepa, in which information of great importance was reported: "The Ottoman Port, of course, and certainly intends to start a war with His Royal Majesty." Details follow. Information about Turkey's preparations for war is allegedly confirmed by the Jerusalem Patriarch Dositheos. Moreover: Dositheus is allegedly upset by Moscow's inattention to him and will no longer write on this topic.
A copy of Mazepa's letter is forwarded to Pyotr Tolstoy, the Russian ambassador in Istanbul. The accompanying note said: “Mr. Ambassador, we are sending you a letter about a certain matter, to which we want an immediate rebuke.” This was followed by reproaches in the sense that you are sitting there, beating your thumbs, and we have to find out everything on the side. The fact is that Tolstoy constantly informed the government that in Istanbul not only were they not preparing for war, but they were not even thinking about it.
The ambassador had to refute Mazepa's statements point by point. As for the behavior of Dositheus as presented by Mazepa, this is also doubtful, because it has never happened before that the patriarch informed one hetman about such an important matter, and left the ambassador and the Russian government in complete ignorance. Subsequent events showed that the ambassador was right.
One can only guess what role Mazepa played here: an accomplice of the Polish-Swedish provocation or its initiator? If the hetman's letter had been taken on faith, then Peter should have, having exposed the direction to Moscow, transfer part of the troops to the Russian-Turkish border. Interestingly, even this disinformation did not break Peter's trust in the hetman.
Mazepa, we have already talked about this, was a fair womanizer. Many of his love affairs have sunk into oblivion, but one remains in history. Being at an advanced age, Ivan Stepanovich kindled with a love passion for his goddaughter, sixteen-year-old Matryona Kochubey. Here is what he wrote to her: “Behind him I kiss the lips of the coral, the little white hands and all the limbs of your little white body, my lyubenko kohanaya.” He, in violation of the church charter, asks for her hand, but is refused by his parents. He does not calm down: he asks the girl to send him either a shirt from her body, or a monisto from her neck. We would not remember these cupids here if they did not have tragic consequences. Motri's parents were extremely indignant at the claims of the old man. They decided to take revenge, besides, Kochubey had been digging a hole under his boss for a long time.
At the beginning of 1708, Judge General Kochubey and Colonel Iskra, with great apprehension, reported to Moscow about the unseemly actions of Hetman Mazepa. Extensive materials have been collected (only 33 items), even Mazepa's poems have been cited as his infidelity to the throne. In paragraph 5 of the denunciation, in particular, it was said that on May 11, 1707, the hetman received news of the defeat of the Russian troops near Propatsk. To the saddened Kochubey, he laughingly said: “But the judge is crying, are tears already flowing from him?” Then, on the same day, he invited the guests to drink to the general health and, by the way, to the health of Princess Dolskaya, saying: “Drink to the health of her princess, for there is a wonderful and sensible lady, my dove!”
Chancellor Golovkin does not believe in Mazepa’s guilt, therefore, inviting Kochubey to Vitebsk, where he was at that time, he knew in advance that, after asking questions, he would send an informer to Kiev, “in order to show the hetman contentment.” Cross-examinations revealed inaccuracies in the denunciations, but Iskra declared that he did not know of any betrayal of the hetman, and heard about it only from Kochubey.
After lengthy interrogations and torture, Kochubey “confessed” that he started all this out of anger at the hetman, and Iskra was in collusion with him. Signing his testimony, Kochubey assessed his role in this case as follows: "Cursed transgressor and torturing of his house and his children."
On June 11, Kochubey and Iskra were brought to Borshchagovka, not far from Belaya Tserkov, and on July 14, after many prejudiced interrogations and cruel tortures, the criminals were presented before a meeting of the entire Zaporizhian army and a crowd of people. A letter of false denunciation was read and both of them were immediately beheaded.
Mazepa, freed from the fear of being exposed, wrote to the tsar that Christian mercy prompted him to ask for release from the death penalty of "nationwide rebels", but since they dared "to denigrate with a flattering, deceitful tongue," he did not show mercy to the slanderers.
***
In August 1707, the Swedish army, having had a good rest in Saxony, began to move towards Muscovy. Directly under the king there were forty-five thousand well-equipped troops, in Livonia under the command of General Löwenhaupt - sixteen thousand, and in Finland another fourteen. With such forces, Karl decided that they were more than enough to deal with Russia.
Having waited for the rivers to freeze, on January 1, 1708, Charles XII, at the head of an army of forty-five thousand, crossed the Vistula. Taking Grodno, moved to Moscow. On July 3, Russian troops were defeated at Golovchin (Mogilev district). Karl went out at Mogilev to the Dnieper, asking the Russians a riddle - where will the Swedes go: to the east or to the northeast? The concentration of Russian troops in the wrong place could be fatal, since there were not enough forces to resist in all directions, which, moreover, distracted the riots that engulfed Bashkiria and the Don.
At this time, an agent from Mazepa appeared at the Swedish headquarters. Through him, the hetman asked the king to rush to Ukraine, since in the event of a slowdown in this maneuver, the Cossacks could spread to the tsarist troops. Immediately, on behalf of Mazepa, a temporary secret treaty was concluded. The hetman undertook to provide the Swedes with winter quarters and provisions. In addition, he recklessly undertook to persuade the Don Cossacks and the Kalmyk Khan to the side of the Swedes.
Another contract was drawn up with Stanislav. All of Ukraine, as well as Smolensk, joined the Commonwealth, and Mazepa, in return for such a service, was promised a princely title and was granted the provinces of Polotsk and Vitebsk on rights similar to those of the Duke of Courland. The day was stipulated in advance when Mazepa would convene his colonels and announce a treaty to them. It will talk about the return to them of their former liberties, from which the Muscovites left only a shadow.
Most of the Swedish generals were against turning to Ukraine, but Karl was sure that the Golden Lion of the North, i.e. he himself will overcome the Eagle and dull his claws. This was guaranteed by Mazepa's readiness to take the side of the Swedish army.
In Mogilev, Charles XII sat down, waiting for the approach of Löwenhaupt and the news of the uprising in Ukraine, but, without waiting for either one or the other, he took off and went to the southeast! Ahead, at the crossing over the Desna, Mazepa should be waiting for him with the promised army.
Peter I, having learned about Lewenhaupt's exit from Livonia to join the main forces, attacked him near the village of Lesnoy (about 70 km southeast of Mogilev) and defeated him. Two thousand carts loaded with military equipment became a Russian trophy. And Löwenhaupt brought six thousand exhausted and hungry soldiers to Karl. But even the defeat near Lesna did not discourage Charles XII. He still hoped for Mazepa and his lucky star.
After the battle near Lesnaya, Peter went to Smolensk, and ordered Menshikov to follow the movement of the Swedish army from Starodub. On October 13, the tsar, assuming that hostilities would spread to Ukraine, ordered Menshikov to meet with Mazepa to agree on mutual actions. The prince, in fulfillment of the command, invites the hetman to his place, but Mazepa's close associates shout with one voice: "If you go, you will destroy yourself, us, and Ukraine!" Mazepa himself is afraid of a dirty trick: they will lure you, put you in shackles, and there, hello Siberia! He sends his nephew Voinarovsky to Menshikov with a message about his serious illness and about his departure from Baturin to Borzna for oil unction from the Kyiv bishop.
On October 23, Voinarovsky rushed to Borzna with “terrible” news: Menshikov, he said, wanted to come personally to say goodbye to the dying hetman. Mazepa sees a catch here too, his nerves can not stand it, and on the same day he rides to Baturin, ordering to wait for the Swedes there, and he himself crosses the Desna early in the morning of the 24th.
Menshikov, not finding Mazepa in Borzna, went to Baturin. On the way, a certain Sobolevsky appeared to him and said that Mazepa had gone to the Swedish king, having instructed the Russians not to let the Russians in Baturin. The prince does not believe this and continues on his way to Baturin. There, referring to the order, Menshikov was not allowed into the fortress, saying that the hetman had left for Korop. On the way there, the prince learned that Mazepa had already crossed the Desna. Now he, too, was convinced that the hetman had gone over to the enemy. He informs the king: “And through his malicious behavior, we truly admit that, of course, he changed and went to the king of Sweden, for which there is an obvious reason and that his nephew Voinarovsky, being with me on the 22nd day of this October, at midnight, without knowing and not saying goodbye to us, he went to him. Further, he writes that there will be no harm from the hetman's act, since centurions and others come from all nearby places and, having condemned the traitor, ask the king to prevent their death. Peter received the message of treason with great surprise. He was especially indignant that Mazepa "was faithful for 21 years ... now a traitor and a traitor to his people has become at the grave."
Both Peter and Karl understood well how important it was to master the food supplies made by Mazepa in Baturin. Both troops rushed to this wealth, but Menshikov was the first. The inhabitants of the castle refused to open the gates, they responded to the offer to start negotiations with abuse, but at night they sent the prince a letter in which they swore allegiance to the royal majesty and assured them of their readiness to let his troops into the castle, but ... in three days. It became clear that the Mazepins were playing for time in order to wait for the arrival of the Swedes. On the morning of November 2, Baturin was taken by storm. Everything that could be taken out, Menshikov took with him, and the rest he burned and destroyed. The news of the destruction of his residence plunged Mazepa into despondency. He said on this occasion: "Evil and unfortunate are our cobs."
Mazepa does not publicize the agreement concluded with the Poles and Swedes, but, trying to raise the Little Russian people under his own and Swedish banners, he addresses him with a lengthy station wagon. Here are some phrases from it: “Now, brethren, we are standing at two abysses that are ready to devour us if we do not choose a way for ourselves to go around them reliably. The monarchs, who have brought the theater of war closer to our borders, are so bitter against each other that the peoples subject to them are already and will still endure an immeasurable abyss of evils, and between them there is a point or goal of all misfortune.
Let's clarify. Initially, Charles XII did not plan to go to Ukraine. His goal was Moscow, but Mazepa promised the support of the Ukrainian people, and he, contrary to the opinion of his generals, took this fatal step. Thus, not the monarchs, but Mazepa brought the theater of military operations closer to their homes.
Let's continue to quote Mazepa's appeal: “My judgment, alien to predilections and soul-damaging inclinations, is this: when the king of Sweden, always victorious, and whom all of Europe respects and trembles, defeats the Russian tsar and destroys his kingdom, then we will inevitably be numbered among Poland and betrayed into slavery to the Poles. And if we allow the Russian tsar to be made the winner, then the already threatening disasters are prepared for us from this tsar. And so it remains for us, brethren, from the visible evils that have bypassed us, to choose the lesser (...) in the future peace of all the warring powers, it is necessary to put our country in the state of powers in which it was before the possession of the Polish, with its natural princes and with all the former rights and privileges (...) The leading powers in Europe, France and Germany, undertook to vouch for this. (...) Our agreements on the above are concluded by me with the King of Sweden by a written act signed by both parties and announced to the aforementioned powers. And now we must revere the Swedes as our friends, allies, benefactors and, as it were, sent down from God to free us from slavery (...)”.
People listened to this appeal and after many altercations, they agreed that changes were necessary, but they could not figure out how to approach them. What there were no serious disagreements about was the unwillingness to depart from the Orthodox faith and surrender to the will of the Lutheran monarch, who tramples on the icons of the Saints and “defiles Wednesdays and Fridays with meat-eating.”
The Cossacks dispersed to their regiments, and early in the morning they left Mazepa's camp, leaving him with two regiments, consisting of Ukrainian Poles, with foremen general and with many officials. They went to the city of Starodub, where they found Menshikov's corps. They reported to him about the deceit and betrayal of Mazepa and asked for permission to choose a new hetman. On November 5, 1708, Mazepa was removed from the hetmanship in Glukhov, and on November 6, Ivan Ilyich Skoropadsky was elected the new hetman. The Metropolitan of Kiev arrived in Glukhov with two bishops, and on the 9th they betrayed Mazepa to eternal damnation.
But back to Mazepa. On October 28, he ended up in the Swedish camp, and the next day he was received by the king. The hetman delivered a short but smooth speech in Latin, which was favorably received. According to the secretary of Charles XII, Mazepa looked like an old man, 66 years old, of medium build, thin, without a beard, but with a mustache according to the Polish custom.
After dinner, the king retired with the hetman to his chambers, where he, as a sign of humility, placed at the feet of Charles the signs of his power: a bunchuk and a mace.
On November 4 and 5, the Swedes crossed the Desna and entered Little Russia. The entry was not like an enemy invasion. The troops passed through the villages without touching property and without committing excesses, but the people there “were then likened to wild Americans or wayward Asians. He, leaving his notches and shelters, killed everywhere (Swedes), where he could find only in small parties and one by one ”(G. Konisky“ History of the Rus ”, 1846, p. 209).
According to that time, according to European traditions, the intensity of hostilities decreased in winter, but this time the Swedes did not feel this - they were constantly disturbed by Russian flying detachments, and the winter of 1708-1709 was unusually severe, and they suffered heavy losses not only in the wounded and killed, but also frostbitten and sick. Swedish General Gustav Adlerfeld wrote: “And we suddenly found ourselves in the need to constantly fight both with the enemy and with the inhabitants of the region where we entered. This greatly upset the old man Mazepa, who came to indescribable grief when he heard that the Russians had taken possession of his treasures in the White Church, and he had placed his hopes on them.
Karl hardly managed to keep the army in obedience, but by the spring he had no more than twenty thousand people capable of holding weapons in their hands. And there were only thirty-four guns left, and nothing at all for gunpowder.
After the betrayal of Mazepa, Peter sends an embassy to Zaporozhye with a letter and a certain amount of money. Taking the money, the Cossacks drove the envoys away. Led by Kosh ataman Kostya Gordeenko, an irreconcilable enemy of Moscow, the Cossacks began hostilities against the Russian troops.
In March, Mazepa invites Gordeenko to a meeting at Kochubey's former estate, Dikanka. Here the hetman delivered a lengthy speech, in which he said in particular: “If you Cossacks have still retained your freedom, then you owe it to me, Mazepa. If the royal plan had come true, you would all have been bandaged, reforged and sent to Siberia. (...) We must recognize the special leadership of Providence over us, that at this very time the Swedish king entered our land and gave (...) hope for liberation from the oppressors. Let us recall how Mazepa used to revile the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks and called for repressions against them.
The official part was followed by a dinner that ended tragically. When the drunken Cossacks began to leave the hetman's mansions, they began to grab various utensils and take them with them. The butler, who tried to stop this outrage, extremely offended the robbers. They complained to Gordeenko, who took all the reproaches of the butler personally and ordered him to leave the hetman's court. Mazepa, having learned about this and fearing to lose his only allies, lost his mind, gave them a deliberately innocent person for the slaughter. They threw the unfortunate man to the ground, kicked him, throwing him among themselves, and, finally, stabbed him with a knife. Where, mospan (sir), is your vaunted eloquence, which more than once rescued you, even on the eve of death? Or habeat sibi! (Well, to hell with him!),
Soon the Russians managed to intercept a letter from the Cossacks to Mazepa. In it, the Cossacks asked for authorized representatives from both kings and from Mazepa himself to conclude an agreement, and also to send troops to destroy the Kamenny Zaton (Russian fortress). The time for exhortations was exhausted, the tsar sent an army to the Sich, and it was ruined. This happened in May 1709. From that time on, it became quiet in Ukraine, but this did not suit Mazepa. He addresses the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey II with a proposal to invade the "Cossack land", for which he promised to become his tributary. The Khan would have been happy to "fight", but the Turks hid in anticipation of the result of a fierce feud between the Swedish king and the Russian tsar, so the Turkish sultan categorically forbade Devlet Giray to make contact with the former hetman.
***
Not having received the necessary resources from Mazepa, Charles XII is trying to get out of Ukraine. On the way was, fenced with an oak palisade, the Russian fortress of Poltava. The king considered her easy prey, so he decided to take it. The generals tried to dissuade him from this, as they considered, a reckless step, but he said: "If God had sent an angel from heaven with an order to retreat from Poltava, then I would not have retreated." On April 29, the Swedes stormed the fortress, but it was repulsed.
On June 4, the tsar arrived at the Russian camp near Poltava with an army of eighty thousand and more than a hundred guns. Both troops - Russian and Swedish - began to carefully maneuver, preparing for battle. On June 17, in one of the reconnaissances, Karl was seriously wounded. He, like Achilles, was pierced in the heel, but not with an arrow, but with a bullet. She stitched through the entire foot and got stuck at the toes.
On June 28, 1709, the Battle of Poltava took place. The Swedes needed a quick victory - they were running out of ammunition. Their left flank and center managed to achieve an advantage, but this was the first and only success of the Swedish army - the overwhelming advantage of the Russian army in numbers and weapons affected. After two hours the battle was over. No matter how the king shouted from the stretcher: “Swedes, Swedes!” his army fled.
The king was put on a horse (according to another version, in a carriage) and he, accompanied by Mazepa and one and a half thousand horsemen, fled through all of Ukraine to Turkish Moldavia. Twelve thousand Swedish cavalry surrendered to the Russians at the Dnieper crossing. Russian losses amounted to 1345 people killed, Swedish - 9234 people killed and 18794 captured.
The victory at Poltava surprised Europe, elevating Russia's international prestige to unprecedented heights. And, strange as it may sound, Mazepa had to be thanked for this. It was his adventurous projects that captivated Charles XII and forced him to take that fatal step, which led the once victorious Swedish army to a crushing defeat, and the Ukrainian people to immeasurable troubles.
The Russian government demanded that Istanbul extradite Mazepa, but he, before this issue was resolved, managed to die. In various sources, I found four dates for this mournful event: September 6, 21, 22 and October 2, 1709. Perhaps one of them is correct, but which one? For me, a mystery.
***
The reader remembers that in 1707, at a military council in Zhovkva, Peter I refused Mazepa the troops. He said, “I can't give ten soldiers. Protect yourself as you know." So here is the author of the book “Ukraine. History ”(Kyiv, 1994) Orest Subtelny, uses this episode to whitewash Mazepa’s act. He writes: "By breaking the tsar's promise to defend Ukraine from the hated Poles - the promise that formed the very basis of the agreement of 1654 - Peter thereby freed the Ukrainian hetman from his obligations" (p. 210).
Based on the fact that the author of an extensive historical work recalled this particular episode and considered it to justify the hetman's unseemly act, let's try to analyze it with the help of the same Subtelny.
So, he refers to the promise to defend Ukraine, allegedly given by the Russian tsar at the conclusion of the Pereyaslav Treaty of 1654. Earlier (p. 175) he notes that "the original documents (contracts) have long been lost, only inaccurate copies and translations have survived," and now there are, according to the same author, as many as five different interpretations of this document. Doesn't it follow from here that we have no right to assert anything concrete? But let's call on the episode of the signing of the treaty itself. Here it is in the presentation of the Subtelny: “Knowing how such things are done among the Poles, Khmelnitsky counted on the fact that in this case both sides would swear allegiance to each other: the Ukrainians - promising the tsar their loyalty, the tsar - promising the Ukrainians protection from the Poles, respect for rights and privileges. But Buturlin (the head of the Russian delegation) refused to take the oath on behalf of his monarch, explaining that, unlike the Polish king, the Russian tsar is an autocrat and does not swear allegiance to his subjects. Reluctantly, Khmelnitsky and his comrades agreed to unilaterally swear allegiance to the tsar - for they were afraid that because of this, as it now seemed to them, a simple formality, they would be deprived of tsarist assistance ”(p. 174). So was the king's promise about which Pan Subtelny writes?
I did not find other serious justifications for Mazepa's violation of allied obligations to Russia. True, there is one more, given by Mazepa himself in a universal known to the reader. Here it is: “I experienced the beginning of our common illnesses on myself. You know that for my renunciation of his plans (Peter I), striking for our fatherland, I was beaten on the cheeks, like an insufferable harlot. And who here does not admit that a tyrant who scolded such a shameful person representing a nation, of course, regards its members as senseless cattle and his own droppings? I do not justify the Russian autocrat, but, as you know, such were the customs. This could be confirmed by Mazepa himself, who somehow publicly slapped the general clerk Kochubey on the cheeks. It's a shame, of course, when you are being scolded in the face, but in this situation there are two ways to solve the problem: hit back the offender or wash yourself after the execution with warm water. Just do not plunge the whole people into trouble!
So for what merits Mazepa was honored to show off on Ukrainian money? No matter how hard I strain, I can not understand those people who made this decision. Maybe they paid Mazepa for his betrayal of the Muscovites? No, having violated the oath, he betrayed not so much Peter as his people. The Ukrainians gave their assessment of the act of the hetman by mass non-participation in his adventure. And if not this, then what?
Perhaps, his difficult twenty years of throwing between the aspiration to be a free gentry and a Russian official at the same time was taken into account? But remember Judas Iscariot. He was one of the twelve apostles under Christ. And he appointed twelve of them to be with him and to send them to confession. (Mark 3:14). Later, Judas betrays Christ and his name becomes synonymous with heinous betrayal. Even the fact that for some time he faithfully served the ideas of the Teacher did not save him from obstruction.
For a long time they have been trying to solve the question: what prompted Judas to betray Jesus? The following thought was also expressed: Judas was a Zealot, i.e. a member of the Jewish religious-political party that fought for the independence of the Jewish people. This nationalist party went to extremes and marked its pernicious activities with the complete enslavement of Israel by the Romans. In the act of this Zealot Jew, they see the disappointment of a person who wanted to accomplish something, but did not succeed. Similar hopes? Yes, and the death is similar: one immediately hanged himself out of shame, and the other immediately "died of sadness."
But there is a difference in their posthumous fate. We will not find a picturesque image of Judas Iscariot on the icons. There is none of them. The Church, recognizing the deed of the former apostle as worthy of condemnation, was consistent in the future. The Ukrainian powers that be, not bothering to justify their actions, disgraced the people, giving an honorable place on the state banknote to a man who became famous for betrayal, for which he was anathematized.
So, Mazepa was made a symbol. Who does not know that symbolism, setting moral standards, like a road sign, shows the vector of the historical path. So where, having become engaged to Mazepa, are our statesmen leading us?